I've blogged before about my family history finds in newspapers,
including my
first "big" one, on GenealogyBank—a 1924 Dallas Morning News
article about my grandfather, then a boy in a Texas orphanage. It
even had a photo of him.

GenealogyBank is letting us offer a
free ebook you can download about how to find your ancestors
in records on the site (which is known for its huge newspaper
collection, although it also has historical documents and books).

Until Daddy takes care of the picture ledge
item on his honey-do list, its home is on Norah's dresser (next to her hairbow frame, inspired by something I saw on
Pinterest. Yes, I actually completed a project I
pinned).

These obviously aren't my research charts or a complete record of all of the kids' known ancestors. Nope. Instead, they're a beautiful way to
display the names of my children's parents, grandparents and
great-grandparents.

Because these trees are in children's rooms, I chose frames in kid
colors. (I printed copies for their baby books, too.)

You also could use a more-versatile gold-tone frame, like our
giveaway family tree. I think these decorative family trees
would make lovely gifts for the holidays, a baby shower or a
wedding.

a downloadable PDF, which includes three sizes—8x10, 11x14 and
16x20. You can type names right into the spaces on the PDF file and print it on your
printer (what I did), or take the file to an office store to be
printed.

a printed chart. You get an 11x14-inch blank chart that you fill
out by hand (trace lightly with pencil first, or type names on
your computer and print them onto clear labels). It looks like
this option might be temporarily out of stock, though.

Here's how you can win the 11x14-inch Watercolor family tree chart,
printed with your family names and framed: Enter
our drawing. That's it!

One of my favorite aspects of PBS'
"Genealogy Roadshow" is the mention of historical people and
events that have become fuzzy memories for folks who once learned
about them in a history class. The show elaborates on some of these
people and places, and others have me googling on my phone.

San Francisco's Chinese community was highlighted when a young
Asian-American woman wanted to know about her family and its fabled
connection to gangster Big Jim Chen. Researchers weren't able to
prove the story because Chen apparently hid his tracks well.

A history segment focused on Chinese immigration and the Chinese
Exclusion Act of 1882. Here's a little more about Chinese
immigration through San Francisco:

Angel Island in San Francisco Bay
was the immigration point for many Asians entering the United States
between 1910 and 1930 (along with Australians, Candians, Central and
South Americans, Russians and others).

The immigration
station there served mainly as a place to to detain and
interrogate immigrants, mostly Asian, who were trying to enter the
country. When the 1906 earthquake destroyed San Francisco birth
records, it presented an opportunity to get around the
Exclusion Act, which made an exception for the children of US
citizens: Chinese who'd naturalized could claim to have had
additional children during a visit to China, then sell the "slots"
to those wanting to immigrate.

Those researching ancestors in Ireland, may be relieved to hear this announcement from the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO): “In recent weeks stories have been circulated by some within the genealogical community that the new Freedom of Information Bill will restrict access to Ireland's civil registration records. CIGO can categorically state that these rumors are completely unfounded. No such change is contemplated and this has been confirmed by Brian Hayes TD, Minister of State in the Irish government.” Read more on the CIGO website.

UK genealogists have launched a free Register of One-Place Studies website, where researchers can register historical studies covering the entire population of a particular place. Click the link for each study for basic details and a link to the study website. Most listings are for the UK, with some from elsewhere.

As you might guess, I enjoy asking people I've just met where their
ancestors are from. Here in Cincinnati, the answer often involves
Germany, so then I ask about their surnames to see if we have anyone in
common. (Then I wrap it up before people start thinking I'm
weird.)

Every once in awhile, someone will answer my ancestor inquiry with, "Oh, I'm a mutt" and rattle
off a bunch of ancestral homelands.

It
collects genealogy research guides to 13 countries or regions of
Europe, plus European Jewish ancestors. You'll learn

what records are available and where they're kept

which records you can get from here in the US using the web, microfilm, books and other sources

how to get records from overseas

how to deal with language barriers and boundary changes

what websites, books, organizations and archives can help in
your research

It's a good way to get expert instructions for researching ancestors
across Europe in one economical package. The
Family Tree Guidebook to Europe is available now in
ShopFamilyTree.com (where you'll see the list of countries covered).

Many of the guests on last night's "Genealogy Roadshow," filmed in
Detroit, had done their own research into family history claims. I love to see all that genealogical interest, and the impact that
family history knowledge can have on someone.

The young woman at the
center of my favorite story was adopted as part of an open adoption. She knew a lot
about her white birth mother's family tree, and little about her
African-American birth father's family. All four parents were with
her as Kenyatta Berry took her back in time along her paternal
line.

Among the other stories was a woman whose English ancestors founded a royal bookstore that still exists today—but later in that line, a physician ancestor went to jail for murder. The final guest learned she was in fact related to Ponce de Leon.

One thing that surprised me in this episode was the show's handling of a
guest's tale of his family name change at Ellis Island, a common belief.

Taylor told the man (I'm paraphrasing) that Ellis Island arrivals
were brought into a room with a clerk at a desk, and the clerk may
not have spoken the languages of the immigrants. When the
clerk asked the passenger's name, he would write down what he'd
heard, which often wasn't the spelling the passenger used.

He made it pretty clear that Ellis Island officials didn't deliberately change passenger names because they were hard to pronounce or not American
enough.

I've always read, though, that passenger lists were
created by shipping line agents at ports of departure, and turned
over to US officials after arrival here. US immigrant inspectors
would then check off the passengers' names on those lists—they
didn't write down any names. Ellis Island also employed translators
in a wide range of languages to speak with immigrants. TV shows are often heavily edited, so what was
actually said could've been quite different from what ended up on
screen.

We just received an announcement that online genealogy company Ancestry.com has purchased Find A Grave, the site with the largest database of free burial information and photos contributed by volunteers.

Find A Grave will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Ancestry.com, and will continue to be managed by its founder, Jim Tipton.

I already hear people asking if the site will remain free. Yes, says Ancestry.com president Tim Sullivan. From the press release:

"We will maintain Find A Grave as a free website, will retain its existing policies and mode of operation, and look forward to working with Jim Tipton and the entire Find A Grave team to accelerate the development of tools designed to make it even easier for the Find A Grave community to fulfill its original mission to capture every tombstone on Earth.”

I've found family tombstone photos on Find A Grave, and you probably have, too. The 18-year-old site has 100 million memorials to deceased people, and 75 million photos, a significant addition to Ancestry.com's content.

Ancestry.com plans for Find A Grave include a mobile app for uploading cemetery photos (Billion Graves, another cemetery website, has one), improved customer support, an easier editing of already-submitted memorials and foreign-language support.

This isn't the first time Ancestry.com has acquired a free, grassroots genealogy site: You may remember back in 2000, when the company (then called MyFamily.com) purchased RootsWeb. In 2008, RootsWeb was moved onto Ancestry.com servers.

We'll bring you more details as we learn them.

Update:Here's an FAQ on the acquisition from Tipton, who says he realized "Find A Grave had gotten too big to run it as I always
have and I also realized that I might not be around some day ...
and I wanted to make sure it had a stable home, while still retaining
control over how it evolves. But ...
I'm hoping this gives me the opportunity to do so many of the things
that I've always wanted to do with the site now that I have some real
resources behind me."

Origins.net and the Devon
Wills Project have compiled a free index of pre-1858
Devon wills, administrations and inventories. Most of the records
indexed here were destroyed during World War II in 1942, according
to the site, so "the overall aim of this index is to create a
finding-aid to enable the researcher to determine what probate
materials were originally recorded." You'll get source information
for any surviving documents that match your search. The
Devon Wills Project, 1312-1891 is searchable free at Origins.net.

The free FamilySearch.org records collection has grown by 192 million indexed records
and record images from Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, the
United States and Wales. Notable US additions include Veterans
Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933. See the full list
of new and updated collections and click through to search or browse
them from the
FamilySearch News and Press Blog.

Subscription genealogy site findmypast.com
has launched an Irish
Newspaper Collection of nearly 2 million searchable Irish
newspaper articles dating as far back as the early-to-mid 1800s .
The papers come from the British
Library and include The Belfast Morning News, The
Belfast Newsletter, The Cork Examiner,The Dublin
Evening Mail, The Freeman’s Journal and The Sligo
Champion. The collection is available on findmypast.com and
with a World
subscription on findmypast.com international sites.